Gaming - Page 419

Hideo Kojima is re-writing a script that was created nearly a year ago, and it's possible Death Stranding 2's development has been rebooted.

Earlier this morning Hideo Kojima confirmed he is revising an old project to reflect the significant changes in his creative process brought on by COVID-19. Kojima explains his new process here.

"I'm reworking a project & script I wrote almost a year ago. The world situation, my environment, emotions last year are quite different now, so I can't put myself in the same world I was thinking of then. I have to bring it to the present. If I don't, it won't become a living thing," Kojima explained.

If you can believe that Battlefield 2042 is nearly here, then you'll be pleased -- or maybe disappointed -- to know that the PC version of the game is the only one that will have support for ray tracing.

NVIDIA will be super-powering Battlefield 2042 with support for both DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) for AI-boosted performance, while Reflex technology will take care of your flick movement. Graphics-wise, EA DICE have used Ray-Traced Ambient Occlusion into Battlefield 2042, and it's only on the PC.

Battlefield 2042's inclusion of Ray-Traced Ambient Occlusion will "accurately adds shadows where game elements occlude light. Be that between a soldier and a wall, a tank and the tarmac, or foliage and the ground". You'll need the GPU chops to drive it: a DXR-capable graphics card, which of course is best on GeForce RTX with its dedicated RT Cores to boost ray tracing workloads.

It appears today is the day for the PC trailers of both of the largest first-person shooters of 2021: Battlefield 2042, and now Call of Duty: Vanguard. Check out the PC-focused trailer to Call of Duty: Vanguard below:

The PC trailer to Call of Duty: Vanguard was accompanied by the full PC system requirements, where we now know you won't need terabytes of storage to install Vanguard -- rather, 36GB of storage space is required for the Multiplayer/Zombie modes only, while 61GB is required for the Recommended/Competitive/Ultra 4K.

You're going to need an Intel Core i3-4340 or AMD FX-6300 processor or better, but the developer recommends an Intel Core i5-2500K or AMD Ryzen 5 1600X while competitive mode has the Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 7 1800X processors, but at the top for Ultra 4K you're going to need an Intel Core i9-9900K or AMD Ryzen 9 3900X processor.

EA DICE just unleashed their Battlefield 2042 "PC Tech Trailer" to detail some of the PC exclusive features of the game -- NVIDIA DLSS and Reflex tech, as well as ray tracing on the PC -- but now it's time for Call of Duty: Vanguard.

The new Call of Duty: Vanguard PC trailer details how Activision and Sledgehammer Games have added in not just NVIDIA DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) but AMD FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) AI-boosted performance enhancements for Vanguard on the PC.

If you've pre-ordered the game, Call of Duty: Vanguard will start pre-loading the game on November 2 @ 10AM PT on the Battle.net Launcher. You will need 36GB of storage space at a minimum, while up to 64GB is required if you want the Hi-Rez Assets Cache and Ultra 4K resolution textures. The developer is recommending an Intel Core i9-9900K or AMD Ryzen 9 3900X for Ultra 4K gaming, and a GeForce RTX 3080 or AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT for Ultra 4K gaming in Call of Duty: Vanguard.

NVIDIA has published a new blog post talking about all things Battlefield 2042, detailing that the PC version of the game is the definitive version of the game (as always, really) and that their partnership with EA and DICE have enabled some delicious features for GeForce RTX GPU series owners, and PC gamers when it comes to Battlefield 2042.

In the new Battlefield 2042 PC Tech Trailer we find out that the PC version of the game has ray tracing, while the others do not. You won't need a GeForce RTX GPU for this, as Battlefield 2042 is using Ray-Traced Ambient Occlusion which means it'll work on AMD Radeon RX 6000 series and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards in Battlefield 2042 with ray tracing enabled.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX series GPU gamers will have something much more special: NVIDIA DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) for AI-boosted performance in Battlefield 2042, as well as ultra-low-latency thanks to NVIDIA Reflex technology. Both NVIDIA DLSS and NVIDIA Reflex will both be featured in Battlefield 2042, alongside the ray tracing support on the PC.

Infinity Ward's new Modern Warfare reboot sequel will add a new game mode to Warzone, sources tell VideoGameChronicle.

Next year's Call of Duty game will reportedly be a sequel to 2019's Modern Warfare reboot. Like all modern Call of Duty games since Black Ops 4, the new Modern Warfare II will integrate directly in Warzone, the billion-dollar free-to-play titan that now serves as the core for the brand.

According to VGC, Modern Warfare II won't just add a new map like the upcoming WWII-themed Vanguard, but a new game mode that's reportedly similar to Battlefield 2042's Hazard Zone. The main objective of Hazard Zone sees a squad-based spin on battle royale set in a sprawling map with PvPvE combat and collection-based survival game mechanics.

Consumers now have the right to repair and replace optical drives from any video games console that utilizes such drives.

Thanks to proponents like iFixit and The Repair Association, the Library of Congress will now allow consumers to repair and replace optical drives used in video game consoles under new exemptions made in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

The arguments were presented in the government body's Eighth Triennial Section 1201 Proceeding (which is jam-packed full of interesting info on DMCA laws and exceptions), and a recommendation was officially made by the Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter.

Janina Gavankar is part of the new AAA action-adventure Marvel game from Uncharted creative director Amy Hennig.

Skydance New Media, a game development branch led by Naughty Dog and Visceral Games alum Amy Hennig, is making a new Marvel game. The project is described as a "narrative-driven, blockbuster action-adventure game" with an all-original storyline.

Now we know the game's first principal actor. Janina Gavankar, who portrayed Battlefront II's Iden Versio, is part of the new game and is likely a star. Thanks to job listings we also know the game is a singleplayer title.

New details surface on Call of Duty 2022, which is rumored to be a sequel to the recent Modern Warfare reboot.

Next year's Call of Duty will reportedly be a continuation of Infinity Ward's recent Modern Warfare reboot, which delivered controversial situations with heavy impact. It looks like Modern Warfare II will push the violence and drama even farther.

Twitter user RalphValve got ahold of a development brief from Infinity Ward that reveals a bunch of new details. Modern Warfare II will reportedly feature a new morality system that dynamically affects in-game events, storylines, and situations (not unlike Mass Effect's Paragon and Renegade system).

SEGA's bold new business plan could be powered by Microsoft's Azure platform.

Today SEGA and Microsoft announced they might team up to trailblaze the new frontier of cloud gaming. SEGA wants to use Microsoft's Azure servers for its new billion-dollar Super Game class of video games, which are huge sprawling multi-year live games with tons of engagement and monetization. Microsoft in turn needs content for its Xbox cloud games program (which is rumored to have a Hideo Kojima game in the works).

SEGA may use Azure to not only power, host, and scale its online games, but to build them as well. Game developers can use Azure to create titles and SEGA's press release explicitly mentions it wants to establish a "next-generation games development environment."

Can you believe GoldenEye 007 was just unbanned in Germany, now, in 2021?

GoldenEye 007 was released in 1997 on the Nintendo 64 by developer Rare, becoming the most successful N64 game in the US market, and the third-most successful N64 game worldwide. In Germany? Nope, they weren't having it -- literally, at all, as the game was "indexed".

If you don't know what "indexing" means, the German government has the Federal Government for Media Harmful to Young Persons, which deemed GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64. GoldenEye 007 wasn't the first game, as there is a big list of games that were indexed for 25 years in Germany... this means they cannot be sold to people under 18, and the games cannot be advertised or displayed in-store.

RIDE 4 dropped on the PC last year in October 2020, with the folks at Digital Dreams used Reshade Ray Tracing on top and the results are absolutely beautiful.

A video popped onto the internet last month that claimed to be the most realistic game on the PlayStation 5, but we now know what that was: RIDE 4, running on the PC, and was released a year ago. Digital Dreams has now got something even better: RIDE 4 running on the PC in the super-glorious 8K resolution at 60FPS with Reshade Ray Tracing, and man... does it look good.

RIDE 4 was running on an AMD Ryzen 9 3900X processor and ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card, and at 8K 60FPS it truly does look amazing. It's not perfect: shadows on the bike and more are missing, but overall it does look fantastic.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is reportedly in "development hell" according to fresh rumors, which also state that GTA 6 development restarted once Dan Houser left Rockstar Games in 2020.

GTA 6 had already gone through changes before Houser left, with the story of GTA 6 changing before he left and that development on GTA 6 had restarted when he left -- and that Houser leaving Rockstar is a "direct consequence" of that says Chris from Rockstar Mag.

The post on NeoGAF continues, saying that Rockstar cannot provide any information on GTA 6 -- noting the original announcement for Grand Theft Auto 6 was meant for 2020 -- because "they changed the story and other game elements too many times in 2019, so don't count on something related to GTA VI soon. This is the most chaotic project R * has managed to date. More than RDR 1 and GTA IV. He didn't want to develop but that's not a good sign".

A new job listing at id Software hints that a new Doom or Quake game is currently in development.

id Software's Senior Technical Animator job listing is pretty interesting and might give away what the studio is working on next. id is specifically looking for an animator that specializes in hair and cloth physics in the Havok games engine for a "long-running iconic action FPS series."

id uses Havok for its games--Doom Eternal, RAGE 2, and even Quake Champions--and the specific mentions of hair and cloth physics might lean towards the rumored female protagonist starring in the unconfirmed Quake reboot that's reportedly in development.

A used copy of Animal Crossing New Horizons is only $10 right now at Gamestop.

Animal Crossing New Horizons has been significantly discounted down to $9.99 over at Gamestop. Granted this is a used copy, but it sure beats the always-premium pricing Nintendo permanently affixes to its first-party games. You'd think since the game has pretty much hit peak sales performance that Nintendo would lower the price to move more units. It worked for Capcom--they've reported 8 consecutive years of operating profit growth because they're flexible with pricing.

The reality is Animal Crossing is already a sales revenue monster. In little over a year, New Horizons has amassed a gargantuan 33 million copies sold. It's by far and away the second best-selling game on the Switch, and it managed to sell 1 million copies per week for many months in a row.

MachineGames' next game may have monetized live services similar to those found in Wolfenstein Youngblood.

It looks like MachineGames is doubling-down on monetization (likely at the behest of Bethesda and its new parent company, Microsoft, who is known for live services). The developer is currently hiring a Monetization and Live Designer who will help establish in-game economies for a new project. The listing says the designer will work with teams to help build a new game from the ground up, meaning the project is being made with monetization in mind.

CD Projekt RED has updated its Cyberpunk 2077 content roadmap to reflect new content delays.

Cyberpunk 2077 isn't getting any new content for the rest of 2021. The developers quietly confirmed the news in a commitment timeline update which shows Patch 1.3 as the last major patch of 2021. To date CD Projekt RED has released 11 updates consisting of hotfixes and major game-changing patches that have fixed a multitude of bugs and memory issues on consoles.

The game's free anticipated next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X/S version has also been delayed to 2022, and it's likely these two are related. Also remember that CDPR is working on multiple new projects including Cyberpunk 2077's multiplayer mode and a new AAA title that's set in the Witcher universe. The next-gen version of Witcher 3 has also been pushed back as far as mid-year 2022.

Diablo 2 Resurrected servers are still a mess and Blizzard is coming up with fixes...but players won't like them.

Blizzard today outlined more details on its server fixes for Diablo 2 Resurrected, confirming the game will get its own PTR (Public Test Realm) to help beta test upcoming updates and patches. Starting next week, Blizzard is making a massive change to how D2's online servers work.

"Next week, our internal teams will begin testing a significant change by having saves occur more often on the regional end, rather than global, in hopes of alleviating some database stress. Once our internal load testing is complete, we will put up a PTR server with this fix to get some real-world testing before rolling out to the live game."

Ex-Visceral Games and Naughty Dog visionary Amy Hennig is working on a new Marvel game, and it sounds absolutely huge.

Marvel has announced they have conscripted Skydance New Media to make a new "narrative-driven, blockbuster action-adventure game" set in one of its franchises. Skydance's game division is led by Amy Hennig, who has worked on some of the biggest games in the industry including Uncharted 1-3 and the ill-fated Project Ragtag Star Wars bounty hunter game for Visceral Games (before the studio was shut down in 2017 and the game was cancelled, of course).

The new Marvel game is set in an unspecified franchise, but the press release confirms it will be a 100% original storyline. Job listings also confirm it's a singleplayer game made in Unreal Engine. The developers have free reign to create their own vision in the property with a new fresh take on the Marvel universe. It's possible the game could be multi-perspective, and Hennig says Skydance will incorporate the "humanity, complexity, and humor" of distinct Marvel heroes.

Capcom reiterates its commitment to PC gaming, says the platform is a big part of its new aggressive push into digital markets.

Capcom's latest integrated report clearly explains its game plan. The company is doubling-down on digital gaming and wants to hit 50 million games sold per year--and eventually 100 million. There's a clear roadmap to making this happen and PC gaming is a big part of it.

In the report, Capcom says it has designated PC as a "priority platform." And rightly so, considering PC gaming is practically all-digital. Capcom says that PC gaming has helped it release games across 200 countries and massively expand its reach--think of PC as a gateway, and the bridge being digital platforms like Steam, where gamers are funneling across the bridge and buying games at the gate.